Ibn Al-ʿarabĪ
IBN AL-ʿARABĪ (1165–1240 CE), known throughout the Islamic world simply as the "greatest master" (al-Shaykh al-akbar), is acknowledged to be one of the most important spiritual teachers within the mystical tradition of Islam. A vastly prolific writer and visionary, he is generally known as the prime exponent of the concept of the Unity of Being (wahdat al-wujūd), even though that particular term, by which his teachings came later to be designated, was hardly used in his own milieu. His emphasis, as with any mystic, lay rather on the true potential of the human being and the path to realizing that potential, which reaches its completion in the Perfect or Complete Man (al-insān al-kāmil). Ibn al-ʿArabī wrote at least 300 works, ranging from minor treatises to the huge thirty-seven-volume Meccan Illuminations (al-Futūhāt al-Makkīya) and the quintessence of his teachings, The Bezels of Wisdom (Fusūs al-Hikam). Approximately 110 works are known to have survived in verifiable manuscripts, some 18 in Ibn al-ʿArabī's own hand. He exerted an unparalleled influence, not only upon his immediate circle of friends and disciples, many of whom were considered spiritual masters in their own right, but also on succeeding generations, affecting the whole course of subsequent spiritual thought and practice in the Arabic-, Turkish-, and Persian-speaking worlds.
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